Since the first charter school legislation passed in Minnesota in 1991, the number of charter schools nationwide has grown rapidly. Currently, 40 states and the District of Columbia have adopted charter school laws. For the 2007-08 school year, 347 new charter schools opened, representing an 8 percent increase over the previous year, and bringing the total number of charter schools to more than 4,100, serving over 1,200,000 students.
The US Department of Education has issued a guide which profiles seven high quality charter schools. It highlights eight common factors that make them successful, although their approaches may be quite different. The guide provides in-depth discussion of each practice and individual school profiles offer examples of how schools implement the policies.
The New Schools Venture Fund (NSVF), founded in 1998, aims to transform public education for all children, particularly those in historically underserved urban communities.
To this end, NSVF supports education entrepreneurs, helping them to grow their organizations to scale and effect broader systemic change.
The first in a series entitled Practices from the Portfolio highlights best practice from promising educational organizations that NSVF supports – many of whom are working to create new systems of charter schools. Case studies include New Orleans, Green Dot Schools and other charters.
Ohio has launched a new public-private partnership to enhance STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) teaching and learning capacity across the state.
Known as the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN), it has the goal of connecting 100,000 students over the next ten years to careers in STEM fields and boosting the state economy.
The OSLN will begin with five schools located across the state. They will primarily serve middle and high school students from low-income and minority communities.
In recent years the University of California (Berkeley, Davis and San Diego), Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the University of the Pacific have set up charter high schools.
The institutions view the partnerships as a way to help students get the skills and knowledge they need for success in higher education. They hope to address the problem of new students ill-equipped for the challenges of higher education, especially among minority or low-income families.
The universities say they benefit from being brought out of their ivory tower and into the real world where they can see if their theories on education reform actually work.
The Student Right-to-Know Act (enacted in 1990) requires institutions enrolling students who pay for college with federal grants and loans (effectively all institutions) to report the percentage of students who graduate within four, five and six years of enrolling.
By 2004 reliable data were available to effectively track graduation trends and the results showed that, at a typical institution, less than 40 percent of students earn their four-year degree in four years. Graduation rates for minority students were substantially lower.
However, some institutions are defying the assumption that the attrition rate among minority, first generation students is unavoidable.
In 2000 Florida State University (FSU) established a comprehensive program to help low-income, first generation students succeed: the Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement (CARE).
The Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) has created a website to serve as a source of information and resources for community colleges. The site will include federal funding information, exemplary community college programs, OVAE projects, Perkins and Adult Education legislative information and transcripts of community college-related speeches delivered by department officials.
To keep track of community college affairs, view OVAE community college.
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